Mason Gaffney: A Tribute [pdf]

Dr. Mason Gaffney, the remarkable economics professor at UC Riverside whose work was inspired by the insights of Henry George, has died, at 96. A tribute at https://schalkenbach.org/file-12/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/... provides a sense of the scope of his writings over the course of 75 years. It has links and commentary on many of his writings.

This ties to a discussion a few months ago at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?p=2&id=23210804 on Georgism.

It starts with Henry George's central philosophical principle:

"The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air—it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world and others no right.

If we are all here by the equal permission of the Creator, we are all here with an equal title to the enjoyment of his bounty— with an equal right to the use of all that nature so impartially offers. This is a right which is natural and inalienable; it is a right which vests in every human being as he enters the world, and which during his continuance in the world can be limited only by the equal rights of others." source: http://progressandpoverty.org/files/george.henry/pp071.html#...

The corresponding economic principle is that we ought to recognize our equal rights to the earth by collecting all the rental value of land and other natural opportunities as shared public revenue.

Gaffney's work, like Henry George's thought, shows that economics is not a dismal science.

His writing is erudite, witty and hopeful, and provides a perspective most economics majors never get exposed to.